Titan Contracting
Titan Contracting is a contract broker based on the colony of Titan in the Terran Republic. It is part of the Amalgamated Industries metacorporation. History Titan Contracting was incorporated on Saturn’s moon of Titan during the outer solar colonisation period of human expansion (2130-2150). Having been earmarked even in the 21st Century for hydrocarbon harvesting, Titan was an early colony of the period and become one of the most significant human settlements within the Sol system, providing not only a ready source of hydrocarbon fuel, but a suitable support base for mining of Helium-3 in Saturn’s atmosphere. With such considerable attention on developing Titan many companies of varying size began to work and compete on the engineering problems required to bring about human habitation on the dusky, freezing, hostile, world. In 2147, some time after the major complexes on Titan had reached a viable level of efficiency, a number of contractors that had relocated from elsewhere in the solar system, and had extensive knowledge of the Titan colony, banded together to form their own company - the Titan Contractor’s Cooperative. The Cooperative steadily grew in size and reputation, eventually becoming the preferred company to contact for any corporation that wished to construct on or around Titan space, even to the point that the majority of contractors that worked on the Saturn mining project were TCC affiliated. Eventually, however, an offer was made by Amalgamated Industries to purchase the company in its entirety from its founders. Given a sum that has never been fully disclosed (but allowing all of the founding directors to retire very happy), the Cooperative was purchased and rebranded as Titan Contracting within the Amalgamated Industries metacorporation. Rather than overhauling the company completely, however, the new owner used the existing local knowledge and business practices to form the backbone of a system-wide expansion, with Titan Contracting bringing more and more contractors working on colonisation projects in other locations under their wing. When the first expansion period began (around 2196), Titan Contracting took a significant commission cut on the awarding of a considerable number of colonial construction projects. This market share steadily increased in light of the quality vetting procedures of the old guard of the company. Under Attack By the time of the second expansion period (2245-2260) Titan Contracting was facilitating negotiations for companies developing the emerging colonies outside of the Sol system and was earning a significant revenue stream for doing so. It wasn’t long before the success of the company for Amalgamated Industries drew jealous glances from competing metacorporations, particularly EXOL. At some point in early 2279, Titan Contracting came under considerable financial attack through a hostile takeover bid by EXOL in an attempt to wrest the company from it historical superiors. It was a brief period of incredible uncertainty for many of the staff on the payroll at the company, and business suffered as a result. Oddly fortunate, however, was the Data Eclipse. With the crashing of the network, EXOL was forced to give up its bid for the company amidst the chaos of a loss of contact. The Eclipse While many executives celebrated coming out of the tangle with EXOL relatively unscathed, revenue almost disappeared for them as well given their reliance on contract brokering with the extra-solar colonies. To make matters worse, not long before the EXOL bid the company had invested in a quantum computer network across most of its major offices - a network that was now under considerable question, along with the company given the significant expense that it had cost to put the system in place. The company scaled back drastically during the period, paring back staff and trying to rely on what financial reserves it had to see it through the crisis. Not content to wait for things to get better, however, the company joined its parent metacorporation (as well as a few others) in the Crash Project - a collection of companies throwing considerable financial clout behind research projects devoted to finding a solution to the Eclipse. Titan Contracting established its “Blue List” for research coordination, acting as a neutral clearing house for research linkages, with those targeted toward the Eclipse being placed at a substantially reduced commission. The end result wasn’t quite what was expected - while there was a revenue stream, it was relatively small, and results from the research weren’t very forthcoming. Along with the other corporations involved, however, the endeavour earned significant public goodwill toward the company, much of which still exists to this day. Post Eclipse When the system came back up, Titan Contracting (along with humanity at large) breathed a sigh of relief. Many of their local offices had fared reasonably well also, given their emphasis on lean hiring practices. The quality of the personnel had paid off and on many worlds some of the account handlers (many of which were former contractors) worked to help their communities survive, netting Titan a significant public relations boost (also widely profiled in the next ten years in many business zines as a successful company). Since that time, Titan Contracting has expanded its interests into other areas of contracting, and is now arguably the market-leader in contract negotiation for most fields of endeavour. Still based on Titan, the company enjoys considerable status as a premiere broker in quality and efficiency. Operations While a company that has influence and operations over the entirety of Republic space, Titan Contracting is actually quite a small company by head of staff. Most day-to-day data entry and list maintenance is performed by Simulated Intelligence agents, with the majority of its staff being account handlers and business executives, focused on the human touch for both contractors and those tendering contracts. The company only maintains major headquarters on the sector capitals, but there are a few satellite offices in important colonies outside of these (usually only consisting of an account handler and business executive - at least two of which consist of spouses). Contracting Referred to collectively as “the lists”, Titan Contracting maintains a group of databases of contract jobs throughout Republic space. Interested contractors can register as a recognised contractor by the company for a one-time application fee (assessed by location and type of contractor, but based on an optimal fee of $5,000), then subscribe to one or more of the lists for monthly subscriptions of job notifications in their vicinity. Registration Titan Contracting provides a specialist service, and consultations by account handlers with tendering parties are coveted by just about any company planning a significant project or operation. As such, the Registration policies of Titan tend to be somewhat exclusive of restrictive in certain locations. The base fee for registration is $5,000, payable in Republic dollars (they don’t accept resources, trade, or IP - just money), but this varies depending on a number of factors. Titan will always have a face-to-face meeting with a representative of the contractor in question, and there will be two questions that primarily factor into registration pricing: “where are you based?” and “what do you do?” If the contractor is in an area where Titan has a large number already on the books, then cost of registration will be quite high unless the contractor has a considerable reputation (Titan may even refuse registration “temporarily” in such cases, but keep the interest on file). The same consideration is applied to the “what you do” question. In general, the sector capitals are rarely overloaded with contractors given their ready access to transit routes and the amount of activity - typically resulting in the $5,000 fee being the most common on such worlds. The price may even decrease in areas which are looking for resident contractors, such as developing asteroid fields, colonies, and orbital stations. Also of interest in registration, is any criminal backgrounds within staff of the contractors. Contractors aren’t expected to have completely clean records, but some charges can cause more problem than others dependent on area of interest. Uniformly, however, breach of trust charges (whether embezzlement of funds, credit defaulting, and so forth) will lead to an application for registration being declined. Additional Requirements Those contractors interested in the Red and Grey lists need to go through an additional stage of vetting in order to gain registration. They, and all of their staff, must submit sufficient information for an identity check (they don’t care if you’re going under an alias, so long as you tell them), which they then use to create profiles and security clearances. Interviews are then conducted between the contractor’s representative and a Senior Account Handler, who are typically authorised for jobs acquired off of both these lists. In the vast majority of cases, this Handler becomes the primary human contact between Titan and the Contractor, and the first interviews are often used to build a rapport between the two parties. Running a Business As part of its program to encourage new and start-up businesses with quality contractors that may not necessarily have the business acumen to survive the cutthroat corporate world of the Republic, Titan offers a business administration service through its own subsidiary, Titan Business Administration (an acronym that was only half intended to be a joke). For 10% contractor-side commission on every completed contract, TBA will provide accounting, payroll, and limited finance and legal management of the business, while promoting its own courses in business administration to make the fledgling company self-sufficient. Many groups, however, prefer to use the TBA services for the life of their company. The Lists Each list from Titan Contracting is given a colour-code, but all may sport different jobs in each location. While there are central lists showing all jobs across the entire Republic, such information is generally kept by the HQ on Titan proper. Account handlers, during registration interviews, gain an impression of how far a contractor is willing to go afield, and sets their list preferences accordingly, resulting in the most applicable contracts showing at any one time. There are a number of lists to choose from, each of which is maintained centrally through the HQ’s SI system, but the tags associated with each contract mean that the local nodes effectively transmit appropriate listings to each subscriber, based on their preferences and assessed capabilities. The Yellow List The original list, the Yellow List is an Engineering and Construction list, posting jobs for contractors that have been put out for open tender (closed brokering is also handled by Titan, but not on the lists). This covers everything from the construction of orbital or colonial habitats to computer systems engineering. Still one of Titan’s largest list, this is the one to subscribe to if you’re looking for jobs in which you build or maintain things. This list is generally restricted to contractors in good standing with some experience in engineering. It’s common to see a proliferation in contractors on this list given that the companies generally expand, then spin off experienced staff to start their own businesses in niche markets. Fortunately, this seldom causes animosity, and it’s regarded as a working market, more or less. The list also maintains “after job reports” for each contractor as well, which means its self maintaining and can be a fast way for a contractor to obtain a good reputation - or find themselves quickly out of work. Subscriptions to the yellow list are $100 per qualified staff member of the contractor per month. The Blue List Established during the Eclipse, the Blue List isn’t quite like the other lists in that it’s not posting jobs, but existing research endeavours that are entertaining expressions of interest from other researchers. About as chaotic as you’d expect academia to be, the listings can be ongoing, project focused (pure design problems are also included), or even just for a single paper. The Blue List is the smallest list by far, with many academics and researchers using traditional peer review publications and symposia to make research contacts. Generally, it’s only highly corporatized research that’s posted to the Blue List, but this tends to make such work quite lucrative (if feeling a bit like selling you soul). Titan is currently reviewing how the Blue List operates, in the hopes it can find a better way to manage research linkages and derive an income. Subscriptions to the blue list cost $50 per month for technicians (anyone below Master’s level), $100 per month below PhD level, $500 if a PhD or above and not currently employed by a corporation (so educational institution) and $1,000 for corporate research staff (typically the entire division, at $1,000 per head - not counting technicians). The White List Immediately behind the Yellow list for number of individual subscriptions is the White List, covering government and business consulting contracts. This collects together accountants, policy analysts, lawyers, spin doctors, and other similar professions under one roof to provide their expertise for top dollar. There is a healthy trade in listings on this list, and there’s plenty of animosity between individual contractors (with some of the businesses using the list having long-standing grudges against some of their competitors). Timescales on the white list tend to be extremely short, though jobs can be quite lucrative given that there’s often no need to travel to a location, but to send through documents prepared in fulfilment of the contract. Exceptions to this general rule are usually stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and so forth, though some companies are happy for these to be undertaken via comms (or even on the Grid) for certain demographics. Subscriptions to the White List are steep, at $1,000 per applicable staff-member per month. Discounts are given for larger companies, but most of these have established client lists anyway, so rarely have cause to go to the White List. The Red List Devoted to security and paramilitary contracts, the Red List deals with small and hard-to-place jobs in law enforcement, private protection, and military reinforcement. Most of the major contracts for regions are sold to larger mercenary companies, with the bulk of those rules being taken out by the largest examples. Entailed in those contracts, however, is the ability for the contractor to sub-contract a certain portion of their duties to other parties. This is usually done in cases where it wouldn’t necessarily be as profitable for a large company to deal with small environments, or there is a need for an experienced operator where there is a deficiency in available forces in a particular region. One example would be the contracting out (by Arcas) of security and law enforcement at the Cerulean Bay Resort on Su Song. Arcas forces are typically not known for subtlety (but well noted for expertise), so they periodically contract out to security forces with backgrounds in private protection (bodyguards) as well as experienced investigators. It’s quite a coveted contract all around (there’s not much crime and the place is fantastic, it’s like a paid holiday) which means that Arcas can get a bargain on the fee. In order to subscribe to the Red List, a potential subscriber must first undergo a vetting procedure and then pay the subscription - $500 per staff-member per month. The Grey List Not really mentioned in polite company, the Grey List doesn’t feature on any promotional documents or open information about Titan Contracting, but is somewhat known in certain circles. Mainly covering industrial espionage as well as some less-than-legal actions by corporations and other entities, the Grey List is a dirty secret of many in the Republic. Curiously, the Republic Security Office sees no need to shut the list down, as they themselves are a user, hiring individuals for certain tasks through any one of their shell companies. Getting a subscription to the Grey List is much like the Red List, but requires that the subscriber place a great deal of trust in Titan, as well as Titan’s security, given that their personal details and job history are held on file. Subscriptions to the Grey List are $1,000 per staff-member, per month, given the information security measures taken around the subscriber database. For that $1,000, however, subscribers are more likely to see their account handler on a regular basis (either in person or over a link) and the contracts tend to be very well paid (clients are paying for silence as well). Advertising While a sizeable revenue stream comes into Titan from the subscriptions, most of the cash comes from advertising placements. Here, the scrupulous policies of maintaining a quality subscriber list pay off for Titan, allowing it to charge both for advertiser registration and job placement charges. Advertiser registration is predominantly a one-off fee, but there’s also an assessment charge every financial period based on the growth of a company. Fees start at five times the base subscriber registration fee of $5,000 and go up (or occasionally down) from there dependent on the population of the specific lists. Advertising costs a base 10% of the remuneration value of a contract (so a contract paying $200,000 would cost $20,000 to place, though this is variable dependent on negotiations between Titan and the advertiser (large companies can work the cost below 5%). This investment pays off, however, with most jobs placed on the list having an average 25 hour turnaround time and usually being completed to the customer’s satisfaction. Brokering Once a contractor company gets quite large or shows an expertise that may extend beyond the remuneration on the lists, that company may be offered the opportunity to become a brokered client. At that point their Account Handler becomes their broker, offering their services to select clients for jobs that don’t always make it to the lists. These jobs can end up being very lucrative, though often include some onerous tasks or complexities that can only be trusted to experienced and capable contractors. Account Handlers also get a cut out of this, with 10% of Titan’s fee being paid out in commission. Given that these contracts often extend into the millions of dollars, and that Account Handlers often handle upwards of 10 contractors at a time, this can make brokerage staff very rich, very fast. For example, a celebrity that’s very particular about bodyguard staff needs additional protection on a tour of the sector capitals. The contract pays $500,000 per person, with an optimal extra number being in the region of 5 or 6 individuals. The broker scours her contractor list and manages to locate a host of files to send the celebrity in question, netting five good matches, $2,500,000 in payable remuneration, an extra 250,000 in placement fees for Titan (paid up front), $25,000 of which goes to the broker on top of salary as commission. Personalities of Titan Contracting *Conri Jelinek - Senior Systems Technician, Titan *Ilona Abasolo - Accounts Division Manager, Teumessia office. *Ina Karimi - Senior Account Handler, Su Song *Li Banik - Branch Head, Su Song List of Company Locations *Ligeia Arcology - Titan - General HQ *Selena Asteroid Field - Hobson system - Field Office *Shou Lin Arcology - Su Song - Sector HQ (Kaifeng Sector) Category:Corporations Category:Amalgamated Industries Corporations Category:Pages open to feedback